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The rise in health care costs has significantly outpaced both inflation and economic growth for decades, leading to increasingly dire projections about Medicare's long-term solvency in recent years. Yet some promising trends suggest the government program may get a new lease on life.

Recently, DailyFinance has explored several myths and rumours about how the health care reform law will effect average Americans -- some false, some true. But the latest piece of propaganda to make the rounds from the anti-Obamacare crowd is a real whopper.

Two Republican senators unveiled a Medicare overhaul Thursday that features an accelerated transition to private health insurance for many seniors, a gradual increase in the eligibility age, and higher premiums for middle-class and upper-income retirees.

Health spending stabilized as a share of the nation's economy in 2010 after two back-to-back years of historically low growth, the government reported Monday. Experts debated whether it's a fleeting consequence of the sluggish economy, or a real sign that cost controls by private employers and government at all levels are starting to work.

Medicare says it's launching a national experiment to improve care for seniors, and hopefully save taxpayers money as well.
Officials announced that 32 networks of doctors and hospitals around the country are becoming Pioneer Accountable Care Organizations, or ACO, which will pursue a coordinated approach to medicine.

Medicare's basic monthly premium will rise significantly less than expected next year, which could pay political dividends for President Obama and Democrats struggling to win over seniors in a close election. The new Part B premium for outpatient care will be $99.90 a month for 2012, or about $7 less than projected as recently as May.

As the federal super committee looks for $1.5 trillion in cuts, it's clear that fixing the federal budget will mean tackling big items -- including Medicare, America's most popular social program and one of its most expensive.

Whistleblowing firm Ven-A-Care has recovered $2 billion for taxpayers by suing drug companies that overcharge the government and create windfalls for participating pharmacies. It also has made $380 million for itself. What's the problem with that?

The government recouped a staggering $4 billion in fiscal 2010 that was stolen from federal health care programs, the departments of Justice and Health and Human Services announced Monday -- the highest annual amount ever. More than half of the fraud money recovered came from drug companies.

An international survey of 11 industrialized nations reveals that adults in the U.S. are by far the most likely to go without health care or skip filling a prescription because of costs, due to a high-cost health care system that lags behind those of other modern countries.

A report to be released by the Obama administration shows that the reform will add 12 years of solvency to Medicare's trust fund for inpatient care and will save seniors nearly $200 a year in monthly premiums by 2018.
The report shows that the reform will add 12 years of solvency to Medicare%u2019s trust fund for inpatient care and will save seniors nearly $200 a year in monthly premiums by 2018, The Associated Press reported.